We recently compiled a list of the Billionaire Andreas Halvorsen’s Top 15 Long-Term Stock Picks. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) stands against Andreas Halvorsen’s other long-term stock picks.
Andreas Halvorsen is a prominent Norwegian hedge fund manager and the co-founder of Viking Global, one of the most successful equity-focused hedge funds in the world. Known for his disciplined investment approach and ability to identify long-term opportunities, Halvorsen has built a reputation as a leader in the financial industry. Halvorsen was born in 1961 in Norway. He attended the Norwegian Naval Academy, where he developed a strong work ethic, leadership skills, and a disciplined mindset. After completing his military service, Halvorsen decided to pursue a career in finance. He enrolled at Williams College, a prestigious liberal arts institution in the United States, and graduated with a degree in economics. Halvorsen later attended the Stanford Graduate School of Business, earning his MBA in 1990.
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After graduating from Stanford, Halvorsen began his career at Morgan Stanley, where he worked in the investment banking division. He later joined Tiger Management, the legendary hedge fund founded by Julian Robertson. Halvorsen became one of Robertson’s top protégés, earning the title of a Tiger Cub. At Tiger Management, Halvorsen gained valuable experience analyzing global markets, identifying undervalued equities, and managing risk. This experience laid the foundation for his future success. In 1999, Halvorsen co-founded Viking Global Investors alongside two other Tiger alumni, David Ott and Brian Olson.
The firm, based in Greenwich, Connecticut, focuses on long/short equity strategies, aiming to generate returns through a combination of long-term investments in undervalued companies and short positions in overvalued ones. Viking Global quickly gained a reputation for its rigorous research, disciplined investment process, and focus on high-quality companies. Halvorsen’s leadership has been instrumental in the firm’s success. Viking Global manages approximately $27 billion in 13F securities as of the end of the third quarter of 2023. It has delivered annualized returns exceeding 10% since its inception, consistently outperforming benchmarks.
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For this article, we selected stocks by combing through the 13F portfolio of Viking Global at the end of the third quarter of 2024. Only the companies that have been in the 13F portfolio of the fund consistently for the past three years were selected. These stocks are also popular among other hedge funds. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
A customer entering an internet retail store, illustrating the convenience of online shopping.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 286
Viking Global’s Stake: $755.5 million
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) operates as a technology conglomerate with core interests in the ecommerce business. This company is positioned as a lucrative investment for the following reasons. Firstly, the report for the third quarter of 2024 shows an appealing picture of positive financial growth. For instance, free cash flow less principal repayments of finance leases and financing obligations increased to $44.9 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $15.9 billion for the trailing twelve months ended September 30, 2023. It has announced plans to expand Amazon pharmacy’s same-day delivery of medications to nearly half the US in 2025 by accelerating the rollout of new pharmacies in 20 more US cities by the end of next year. Moreover, the company has launched new generative AI-powered features, including Rufus, a generative AI expert shopping assistant, becoming available in Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Spain, and the UK. In addition, the company has also introduced AI Shopping Guides, which simplifies product research by using generative AI to pair information about a product category with Amazon’s wide selection, making it easier for customers to find the right product for their needs.
Overall AMZN ranks 4th on our list of Billionaire Andreas Halvorsen’s top long-term stock picks. While we acknowledge the potential of AMZN as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for a stock that is more promising than AMZN but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
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